Racine Park’s players and coaches can head into winter break breathing sighs of relief.

The Panthers’ boys basketball team ripped victory from the jaws of defeat twice Tuesday night to defeat Milwaukee Hamilton, 68-67, in a non-conference game at Hamilton. It was the team’s third straight victory since a 26-point loss to Franklin on Dec. 5 that knocked the Panthers, at least for the moment, from what was expected to be their perch atop the Southeast Conference.

The win sets the stage for a two-week break for Park before it returns Jan. 5 to face conference leader Kenosha Bradford at home.

Sophomore guard Jalawn Farrell’s bucket deep in the paint at the buzzer off a pass from junior forward Nobal Days was the difference.

The play capped a second half in which Hamilton rallied from a 10-point deficit to lead and a final minute when the lead changed four times.

Senior forward Nobal Days posted a quadruple double: 10 points, 16 rebounds, 12 assists and 10 blocks to help Park improve to 6-1. Senior guard Rance Kendrick, who hit a three-pointer with 7.6 seconds left to give the Panthers a 66-65 lead, led the Panthers with 16 points. Larry Canady, a junior guard, added 15 points. Farrell had 11.

"I just feel like in the second half we felt a step slow,” assessed Park coach Jim Betker, whose team is 6-1 and ranked ninth in the Division 1 wissports.net state coaches poll. “We seemed to lack energy and focus. Our guys are experienced guys so we never folded, but we put ourselves in a tough position tonight, so we were lucky to sneak out a win.”

Wildcats oh-so close: The consolation for Hamilton (3-4) is that it can say it has gone toe-to-toe with Franklin and Park, two of the better teams in the conference and two teams it could face in the postseason.

The Wildcats came back from a five-point deficit in the final 2 minutes with a 7-0 run that featured two free throws from White with 1 minute 47 seconds to play, a three-point play by junior forward Martel Winters with 1:13 to play and a putback by White with about 30 seconds left.

White later hit two free throws with 7.6 seconds left to give Hamilton a 67-66 edge.

“We’ve been up and down all season, so the fact that we were down early and made a huge run in the second and we competed with a team that will be successful in the postseason is very promising,” Hamilton coach Pat Bell said.

Imperfect science: One of the beauties, or perhaps frustrations, with the high school game is that the game isn’t called perfectly.

That imperfection hurt Hamilton’s shot at the upset. After White’s free throws with 7.6 seconds left, it initially appeared that Park was held without a shot in the final seconds. Hamilton’s players and fans actually rushed the floor celebrating what they thought was an upset victory.

It turned out Betker called timeout before the buzzer during that chaotic stretch. The question was when.

If this were the pros, the officials would have been able to check replay in order to reset the clock at the correct time. This is far from the pros, though.

The officials reset the clock to 3 seconds when a video taken by one of the onlookers showed that 1.1 seconds would have been the exact time. With only 1.1 seconds left, Park would have had to try a different play to end the game.

“We can’t focus on things we can’t control.” Bell said. “I went to the refs and told them what I thought it was. He said what it was and at that point I’ve got to go with what they say. We can’t really dwell on that.”

Passing the ball: Days is one of the best passing big men in the state and it showed. Time after time he showed his vision in getting the ball to his teammates. His teammates got off track in that regard for a stretch in the second half when Hamilton erased a 10-point lead and took the lead.

In the final 4 minutes, however, the Panthers’ offense ran through Days and it was a major reason Park went home with a victory.

Play of the day: Speaking of Days, there may not have been a better play to show his impact than in the first half when he blocked a shot near the basket, grabbed the rebound and then fired a full-court pass to Kendrick for a breakaway layup. Beautiful.

Status update: As bad as Park’s loss to Franklin was, it was still just one game. The Panthers aren't going to disappear from the conference race.

“You’ve got to play your best basketball in February and March," Betker said. “We’re a very good team, but it’s any given night. We haven’t been very good every game and the games we have been really good, we’ve handled (teams).

"We went down to Ohio and played remarkable. I thought we came back that Tuesday to play Franklin and looked gassed. There’s no excuses. They took it to us. They were better than us that night "